Why Digital Marketing is a Must-Have for Healthcare Recruiting

Sep 16, 2020

When the AAMC predicted a shortage of almost 140,000 physicians by 2033, in-house recruiters faced a shift in their responsibilities. Their job suddenly centered around “selling” physicians on why they should choose a certain facility over another. Much like selling consumer products, recruitment marketing success comes from strategically placing your brand in front of your target audience, building brand awareness, and eventually compelling them to take action. When utilizing digital marketing for healthcare recruitment, there are three main goals:

  • Raise brand awareness for your facility
  • Build a candidate pipeline
  • Hire quality, screened candidates

For a hiring team, these goals probably sound familiar, with the exception of building brand awareness. However, in order to reach your pipeline goal, you need to understand brand building first. When executed well, your facility becomes top-of-mind for candidates, resulting in you being their first choice when they decide to begin a job search. 


For hiring, you’re familiar with tools such as applicant tracking systems and candidate databases. For digital marketing, there are a few tools necessary for success as well:


SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Every landing page on the internet is assigned a quality score by Google. This score represents how relevant your page is to what is entered into a search. By utilizing SEO, you increase your visibility in organic (unpaid) search results, placing you in front of candidates entering a job search.

Cost Per Click Ads

When placing an ad online, you’ll build an audience for it in order to ensure the appropriate people see it. The amount you pay for this ad is based on how many of those people actually click on it.

Landing Page

Your facility likely has a website that provides useful information to patients. A candidate-focused landing page allows your audience to bypass the information they don’t need and learn about provider careers with your facility. (This also helps your SEO score, mentioned above.)

Email Journeys

You’ve sent emails to candidates before, but journeys take it a (big) step further. Journeys use automation to send emails when your audience sets off specific triggers. This allows you to instantly speak with and build a long-term conversation with candidates.

Social Media

Social media allows you to target a specific audience based on criteria chosen by you (i.e. specialty, education, etc.). This also allows candidates to digitally experience your facility’s culture.

Since COVID-19 hit, the strength of digital marketing has increased. Because of furloughs and lay-offs, more candidates than ever are now exclusively on their devices looking for new opportunities. Digital marketing empowers you to reach this massive audience at their fingertips. During our Digital Marketing Inline Session, Morgan Palmer of MedStar dove deep about the importance of digital marketing for healthcare recruiting. Click here to watch the full session.

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